The effect of TaC on grains and packets coarsening in the reduced activation ferritic/martensitic (RAFM) steels was investigated. It was found that the combined effect of the austenitizing temperature and heating rate resulted in the heterogeneous austenite grain growth. When the austenitizing temperature was raised above 1 423 K, the TaC particles disappeared, and the homogenous grains abruptly increased. The thermodynamic model for dissolution of TaC particles during austenitizing was applied to interpret the results.
Electronic and magnetic properties of CeN are investigated using first-principles calculations based on density func- tional theory (DFT) with the LDA + U method. Our results show that CeN is a half-metal. The majority-spin electron band structure has metallic intersections, whereas the minority-spin electron band structure has a semiconducting gap straddling the Fermi level. A small indirect energy gap occurs between X and W. The calculated magnetic moment is 0.99 μb per unit cell.